These Kids Feel At Home In Classroom

A Recent Conference In Naperville Gives A Lift To Home Schooling

June 05, 1997|By Casey Banas, Tribune Education Writer.

"Home school always" proclaimed the name tag of Janine Erber, a 19-year-old woman who never spent a day in a regular classroom.

Thirteen years ago, Roger and Maggie Erber started teaching their daughter at home, and they continue to school in their Des Plaines home their other children, ages 17, 14, 12, 9, 5 and 4, with an 8-month-old baby to follow.

The Erber kids are among an estimated 1.23 million children in the United States taught at home by their parents for reasons ranging from ensuring family values to concerns about safety and undesirable peer pressures in public schools.

"This the best thing my parents have done for me," Janine Erber said as she greeted participants at the ninth annual Illinois Christian Home Educators Association convention held recently at Calvary Church in Naperville. "They not only equipped me educationally for life but gave me real-life practical skills."

Roger Erber is board president of the home school group, which held seminars for two days that attracted more than 3,000 people interested in teaching their youngsters at home.

"We wanted to impart to our children our beliefs and values that are eroded in public schools," Roger Erber said. Among the values he cited are Christian faith, godly character, kindness and honoring older people.

Roger Erber, a self-employed tool-and-die designer of plastic molds, said, "A good part of children's education takes place among their peers. They develop a culture of their own that does not reflect our values."

For six years, Marilyn Tabbut of Warrenville has taught her son, Matthew, 14, an 8th grader, and daughter Laura, 12, a 6th grader, at home. The main reason, she said, is to provide "a spiritual aspect" to their schooling.

"We have the opportunity to include a biblical view in their educational experience," she said.

Tabbut plans her own curriculum, using textbooks she buys from catalogues and recommended by other parents as a springboard for personalized lessons. She searches through library resources to find, for example, biographies of scientists.

When missionaries from India stayed for a week at the Tabbut home, their visit was used as the starting point for a unit about that country. And this fall, the Tabbuts will visit the Globe Theater in England as a link to a study about William Shakespeare.

A national achievement test is structured so that 50 percent of students score above average and 50 percent below. Studies by the Home School Legal Defense Association show that in nine test categories such as reading and math, 80 percent to 87 percent of home-schooled children are above national averages, depending on the exam.

Some states require parents to submit achievement test scores or professional evaluation of children taught at home, but Illinois is not among them.

Among public school students, 63 percent scored above average when their parents graduated from college, but 28 percent from families where parents did not graduate from high school, according to the association.

With home-schooled youngsters, 87 percent were above grade level on a battery of tests when the father was a college graduate, and 79 percent were above average when the father was a high school dropout.

A key reason, home schoolers say, is the extensive individual attention given to the child.

At the Illinois conference, many parents attended seminars on subjects such as how to use thermometers, test tubes and chemicals to teach high school science. They also strolled among the 100 exhibitors to learn more about curriculum materials they might purchase.

Al Salvi of Mundelein, unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1996, was at the convention with his wife, Kathy Salvi, to get a better feel for what to teach their daughter, Katie, 8, the eldest of five children they expect to teach at home.

"I want to make sure my kids get a quality education," said Salvi, a lawyer. Salvi said he spends four hours a day teaching Katie.

John and Carolyn Matovich of Wheaton teach their 5-year-old daughter, Kristi, at home.

"This is the best way to educate your child, because you can tailor the curriculum to the child," John Matovich said.

The mother of five young children, Kim Long of Plainfield teaches the three oldest--in 5th grade, 1st grade and kindergarten--at home. She said she was turned off to Plainfield public schools two years ago when son Kyle, then in 3rd grade, was in what she said was an overcrowded school with little discipline. She said that he was beaten by other boys and that the school bus driver used obscene language toward youngsters.

The Longs are among 150 families in the Plainfield-Joliet area who have joined forces to help their kids socialize. A frequent criticism of home schooling is that children are isolated.

On Fridays, the youngsters gather in Maple Lawn Christian Church in Joliet for classes in art and science taught by parents. They also stage Christmas and spring musicals and take field trips.

Also, Long said, her children mix with others in park district activities including soccer, skating and baseball.